??She selects wool and flax and works with eager hands.?? — Proverbs 31:13

As women of God, we are called to serve God and others. The ??others?? vary by our situation. They can be: husbands, children, parents, siblings, relatives, friends, etc. No matter whom it is we are serving we are asked to accept the work God has assigned us.

In Biblical times, wool and flax were significant because all clothing was made from either wool or flax. Flax is woven together to make linen. Wool was woven to make outer garments. Those people that were clothed in linen were deemed suitable to be in the presence of God.

Wool and flax are raw materials that must be woven together to make something beautiful on the inside and the outside. Women are called to work with their hands to create something from nothing. Functionally, women are designed to create a life by piecing together two raw materials to make a life. On a basic level, we are asked to fulfill the roles of women in biblical times and choose what is best for ourselves and our loved ones to make them presentable to God each and everyday. We are called to dress our loved ones spiritually and physically both internally and externally.

Women are called to prepare hearts and minds to be present in the Lord by our example. We are asked to pray with our loved ones and pray for our loved ones. Women must teach others to fear God but, to know God??s unending love for us. It is not enough to simply teach others and pray with others. These seemingly invisible acts are our spiritual flax. Attending church, living the faith, and enjoying the company of other Christians is our spiritual wool. Together our flax and wool make us presentable to God.

In a more practical sense, flax typically was grown on the grounds of a woman??s home therefore, she set out to select what her property had yielded. Today, women are often in a position to select the foods that a family consumes and the garments a family will wear. We can choose food and clothing that is made using humane practices and fair trade. We must choose the best food, the purest foods to place on the table before our family. We make sure our children are drinking out of BPA free cups and they aren??t consuming unnecessary chemicals. Many of us strive to make food from scratch to ensure that our loved ones are consuming the best. We may not be weaving our clothes but we are selecting the clothing for our loved ones and ourselves that glorify God.

Interestingly, we are called to do this difficult work each day with eager hands. It is not always easy to fulfill our role as women of God with zest and joy. The use of the word ??eager?? is curious because in other translations they use word ??willing??. Eager indicates a certain level of excitement however; willing indicates that she receives the work because it is the will of God. It does not indicate the same level of excitement for the tasks laid before her. On a daily basis, we should strive to fulfill the role that God has set before us with joy, happiness, and love. The love of God should be our motivation to complete seemingly difficult and sometimes thankless tasks. Our reward will be found in heaven.

Liz is a Catholic wife and mother to a little boy. Her family resides in New York. She enjoys cooking, crafting, and quality time with her family. She blogs about their life together at Tales From Astoria.

Today’s author, Jill Maria Murdy, is the younger sister of a family friend. My mom started working with her older brother when I was probably 3 or 4. We got to know each other last year when I started making liturgist jokes on her brother’s Facebook. These days, she’s my late night chat buddy on Facebook and graciously agreed to write something for this. 🙂

She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life ?? exclaims the NRSV translation of Proverbs 31: 12, but it is hard to ask ??what does this mean??? without putting it in the context of the whole chapter of Proverbs 31: 10-31. One could go down the list of skills and gifts presented in the scripture and come up with a similar, albeit updated list of skills of the wife or woman today.

Sometimes people pick and choose which verses of this passage they want, and you end up hearing ??Yep. The good wife, she cooks and cleans, and takes care of the men.?? But that is the smallest degree of what was said in the first place. Sometimes the passage is called ??the valiant wife?? or ??worthy wife.?? ??She is more precious than jewels.?? Take a look at the passage and then reflect on it. Perhaps she works with fine arts instead of wool and flax, or clips coupons instead of bringing her food from far away.

Maybe she rises early to take the children to school, write her blog and pray, or do a task at home before heading out to her own job. She may be a land owner or investor, and finds time to work out at the gym. Late night she is busy paying the bills, and managing the family??s calendar for the week. She waits for the repairman for the garbage disposal, and reminds her husband of the ??honey do list?? of chores which must be done to maintain the house. She is involved in volunteer work and helps at the domestic violence shelter and the food pantry.

Her house is sturdy, and she cares for her belongings and pays her electric bill on time. She is not afraid of the snow as the kids have warm clothes. Perhaps it may be chaotic, but the household is filled with love. She or her husband may hold public office, and perhaps she is a successful businesswoman, or holds her own roles within the church or community. Her identity is not dependent upon his, but they support each other.

Time and beauty may pass, but still they are happy as they continue to love and grow together.

So if we go back to the original premise, ??She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life ??, who??s life would not be richer for having this woman, this lover, this friend along side them? She is exercising the virtues which come naturally from being a good woman. These are the skills she learned from her mother, and every generation of women has been down to those who follow them since long before Proverbs was ever written.

Jill Maria Murdy is the director of Liturgy and Music at St. Frances Cabrini Parish in West Bend WI. This is a large parish with 2300 families, 6000 members. She grew up in a small Montana town. She is a frequent writer and contributor to many liturgical publications. She also has a background in small rural communities, and Benedictine Monasticism.

In her current ministry she plans about 70 funerals a year. The Proverbs passage is frequently discussed so she has had many chances to reflect on it.

Our first guest post comes from Priest’s Wife. She is an American married to a man from the old country who was ordained a Byzantine Catholic priest. They homeschool their 4 kids, & She teaches college English part-time.

Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value. (NIV)

The heart of her husband trusteth in her, and he shall have no need of spoils. (D-R)

Her husband trusts her without reserve, and never has reason to regret it. (The Message)

In Proverbs 31, when the writer asks “Who can find a virtuous woman- her price is beyond rubies”- the first attribute of this virtuous woman is in verse 11. She is trustworthy. There is no reason for her husband to doubt her virtue and trustworthiness in anything. This trustworthiness is the beginning of the extraordinary ‘Proverbs 31’ woman, a woman we believers strive to be while we wonder if she ever truly existed.

St John Chrysostom (347-407 AD) preached and wrote on the sacrament of marriage and especially wished to inspire his parishioners to retain a Christian dignity within marriage even while the flashy pagan customs still prevailed. He wanted the married couple to trust that the Lord had brought them together. The couple doesn’t need to marry for money or fame; they should be married to live a life of virtue together. A woman who could be trusted with the household, the servants, the children and the heart of her husband would be someone worth far more than rubies in St John’s eyes. He would preach a lot about the peace that exists in a good marriage, and the trustworthiness of the man and wife being paramount. If you can cause to trust your wife, there is no ‘drama,’ so there is peace.

“Scripture does not say, ??They shall be one flesh.?? But they shall be joined together ??into one flesh,?? namely the child. But suppose there is no child; do they then remain two and not one? No: their intercourse effects the joining of their bodies, and they are made one, just as when perfume is mixed with ointment. Why are you blushing? Leave that to the heretics and pagans, with their impure and immodest customs. For this reason I want marriage to be thoroughly purified, to bring it back again to its proper nobility. You should not be ashamed of these things. If you are ashamed, then you condemn God who made marriage. So I shall tell you how marriage is a mystery of the Church!”

St John Chrysostom, in his sermons on love and marriage, can seem a bit old-fashioned. He is a celibate bishop from over 1,500 years ago. He certainly insisted on traditional roles with the man working outside the home with the woman taking the lead in domestic concerns. But in his earnestness, it is clear that the saint knows that a trustworthy wife (and a trustworthy husband as well. A husband is not trusting of his virtuous wife if he himself is doing untrustworthy things) is the basis for all the good things that come from a stable marriage.

“The love of husband and wife is the force that welds society together. Men will take up arms and even sacrifice their lives for the sake of this love. St. Paul would not speak so earnestly about this subject without serious reason; why else would he say, ??Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord??? Because when harmony prevails, the children are raised well, the household is kept in order, and neighbors, friends, and relatives praise the result. Great benefits, both of families and states, are thus produced. When it is otherwise, however, everything is thrown into confusion and turned upside-down.” ??Homily on Ephesians 5:22-23

To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved.
– George Macdonald

I’m posting a bit late today due to sleeping in this morning and having errands this afternoon.

In 2000, some missionaries from our church came home on furlough from Uganda and spoke at my college church one Sunday in an effort to continue receiving funding from the church for their efforts. As part of their presentation on their work, they did a quiz on Uganda. It dealt with where Uganda was located, how many languages and cultures were represented, etc. One question was on what kind of women Ugandan women love. Quoting the missionary, “Ugandan men like big beefy women. A tall and heavy woman would be worth ten cows. The two ladies on your worship team (myself and another woman who were quite petite and skinny) would not be worth three chickens!” Everyone dissolved into laughter and it was a few months before members of my college group let me live that one down!

While it didn’t occur to me to use “Worth More Than Three Chickens” as a blog title or domain name when I started blogging, it does fit with the first verse (verse 10) in the Epilogue in Proverbs 31. Depending on the translation, the woman described is valiant/virtuous/of noble character/capable/valorous and her value/price is far above rubies/jewels/pearls/diamonds. These items belong in the dowry of a princess because that kind of wealth is far above what any peasant would know. The wife was frequently the manager of the household as she bore and raised the children, instructed any servants (again, only in the houses of the wealthy), cooked the food, made all clothing and linens, and sometimes took goods to the market to sell. Having a wife who was capable in these areas was indispensable for a man because they could then focus on their trade, knowing that all was taken care of at home.

These days, I too am manager of the house. I cook the food, clean (badly), handle the finances, take care of Daniel, fight with insurance/Medi-Cal/SSA, and generally try to keep the household going. Were I not capable of doing all of these things, Jon would have a harder time being free to pastor his church. Because I can handle calling UC Davis on Monday to let them know that Medi-Cal is messing up with the billing on Daniel’s hospital stay from a few weeks ago (for example), Jon can meet with his Monday morning coffee person, go through music with one of our pianists, and plan out the liturgies for Lent.

My worth is also not dependent on what I can do for Jon or for Daniel. My worth comes from being a child of the living God who chose to send His Son to give his life for me. That alone is far beyond the worth of jewels or pearls.

I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord, who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned creature, purchased and won [delivered] me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil, not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death, in order that I may be [wholly] His own, and live under Him in His kingdom, and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, even as He is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity. This is most certainly true.
— Luther’s Small Catechism

It was Rachel’s fault.

I had read her second book twice through at Christmas (as well as her first one) and my brain was pondering what Proverbs 31 looked like in our world today. Consulting a few different translations, I came up with “woman of valor” and “valiant woman”. Rachel did an excellent job of taking it literally in A Year of Biblical Womanhood but I had a weird thought one night about it…

We’ve all read Proverbs 31 and heard it applied to us. What does it mean for us in our daily lives? What is it in these verses that makes us valiant women?

I decided to branch out on this and asked my Cathsorority chicas and a few other female friends if they’d be interested in exploring this with me so I have some guest posters for the next few weeks. I asked my friend Rebecca if she could make me a graphic for a guest posting series and above is what she created.

I’ve heard from many women that this particular passage makes them feel unworthy and I think we need to change that.

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Rebecca sent me the credits for her image. They are…

-Ruby Image courtesy of Boykung / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
-Celtic Cross: Wikimedia Commons
-Candle Picture: Stockvault